The Autistry Studios Mission

Helping ASD youth become independent adults.

At Autistry Studios we help teens and adults with Autism, Asperger's and other learning differences become successfully independent by leveraging their interests and talents while creating a community.

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End of year request for your donations to Autistry Studios

Posted By on December 26, 2009

Full Barn

We have had a great year at Autistry Studios but we would like to take this opportunity to ask for your additional help before we launch into a new year.

On DisplayRamses II

This week we would especially appreciate any donations you could make of either cash or tools and materials.

United Cerebral Palsy of the North Bay has generously agreed to be our fiscal sponsor while Autistry Studios’ 501 (C) (3) paperwork continues to wend its way through the IRS and State offices. All checks or money orders should be made payable to UCPNB/Autistry Studios and sent to

[Update, we received our own 501(c)(3) status in February 2010.]

Autistry Studios
137 Granada Dr
Corte Madera, CA 94925.

Additionally, Janet Lawson and Dan Swearingen will match all cash donations made between now and December 31, 2009 up to a combined total of $5,000.

Because we are space limited, if you have any tools and/or materials you wish to donate please call us or email in advance since we need to prioritize tool and material donations to only things we can make good use of fairly immediately.

Gift cards also work great as donations: Borders, Amazon, cards redeemable at hardware or grocery stores would be appreciated.

The value of your cash donation or the fair market value of any tool or material donation will be tax deductible as a charitable donation on your 2009 tax return. We will report back to you on how all your donations were used to help us provide services to our growing student body.

🙂

Turkey Time

Carissa and her Sword

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Autistry Studios Newsletter – December 25, 2009

Posted By on December 25, 2009

The Fall 2009 workshops came to a close with great progress on projects, lots of lessons learned, and many new friends made. We are looking forward to working with everyone in the next series which begins with our new Tuesday Build Stuff Workshop on January 12th. We have spoken to most of you but do email us to confirm your place in The 2010 Workshops: info@AutistryStudios.com.

Friday Build Stuff and College Support with Dan
Phoebe finished the decorative columns for Ramses II and will be able to put the finishing touches to this scene in the next couple of sessions. Corey completed his Harvey Milk diorama. It is fabulous! Breton’s Elf World is nearing completion – just a few more details before it is ready for display. Kris has embarked upon a wonderfully complex model tank project that will take him well into the next workshop series – lots of detail and a good narrative for the diorama. We are planning to enter all these projects in the Marin County Fair this summer – so watch for news!

Saturday Filmmaking with Nate
All three film projects are very, very close to finished. Andrew is missing only a couple cut-aways and the end credits on the Rush Limbaugh Show. Devon is the closest with her behind the scenes look at Steven at work. Steven just needs to do some sound effects on the voice tracks and his latest installment in the adventures of Bupim will be ready to screen. All three were ambitious projects and we are looking forward to sharing them on the site and on YouTube.

Sunday Build Stuff with Dan
Joseph has created the foundation for his Geo-Trak layout – the tunnel is marked out, the river bed is dug out and the tracks are layed out. Ryan’s trains are running on the track! All the switches work on this wonderful model switch yard. We’ve all enjoyed driving the trains – now, the work begins on modeling the terrain. Paul’s halo helmet is beginning to take shape. He has learned to use a new tool – the hot wire cutter. Ian’s dojo is coming along as he cuts and pastes each wooden slat into place.

Check out the photos:

Friday Build Stuff and College Support with Dan
Saturday Filmmaking with Nate
Sunday Build Stuff with Dan

Wishing you all a great holiday! Janet, Dan, Nate and AJ

Event: Parent support group for parents of children and adolescents with autism

Posted By on December 9, 2009

Doug Lipinski is the dad of one of our first students and he has been doing parent group meetings for several years here in Marin.

This meeting is for Moms and Dads but Doug also runs a regular Dads meeting. Please contact Doug at his email below if you have any questions.

From Doug:
Come and discuss strategies for getting over any holiday bumps, offer your winning strategies and build camaraderie with other parents who share similar life circumstances.

Since December is a busy month please call Doug at 415-785-4319 or respond to lipinski@sbcglobal.net if you plan to attend.

Parents of Children and Adolescents with Autism
Parent Support Group
Thursday Dec. 17th 7:30 – 9:00 p.m.
30 North San Pedro Road Conference Room
San Rafael, CA 94903

Refreshments Provided.
Free and Open to the Public

Film report: Ben X

Posted By on December 4, 2009

Ben X is a 2007 film from Belgium about an extreme Aspie teenager who is relentlessly bullied in and around his high school. Ben’s solace is his role playing game persona (“BenX”) and his online relationship with a healer character “Scarlite.”

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Bad Things happen to him. Ben is driven past his limits and it is unclear until near the end how it will come out. I will not spoil the story for you in case you wish to see it.

If you are ASD or have an ASD person in your life, Ben X is heart breaking but a very good movie. If you want someone to see what it is like to be ASD this is perhaps the best film portrayal I have ever seen.

Dutch language with English subtitles. Available at Netflix (streaming or DVD) and Amazon.

Benx

Autistry Studios Newsletter – November 23, 2009

Posted By on November 23, 2009

** REMINDER: No workshops over the Thanksgiving weekend **

All the workshops this last weekend were incredibly focused – lots of great energy and lots of great work was done. Chelsea filmed the Friday group this week. Her documentary is beginning to take shape. She will be filming interviews in the coming weeks and plans to have the project edited and ready for posting in March!

FRIDAY BUILD STUFF: Phoebe has put her unique mark on the Ramses Columns and they are looking good. Breton’s Elf World lit up – literally. A small ‘pumpkin light’ in the tree house added a very warm glow. Corey nailed down a parade of people and now just has a few touches to put on Harvey and the MILK diorama is ready for showing. Kris is building the suspension on his Sherman tank – lots of little pieces to keep track of. And, we had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with a special Battle of the Drumsticks!

SATURDAY FILMMAKING: Andrew found fabulous footage for cutaways in the Rush Limbaugh Project – very, very funny stuff. Devon’s documentary showing the many sides of Steven really took off this week. She put together some great sections (who knew Steven was so accessible!). Steven finished sculpting his cast of thousands and began the arduous work of photographing the sequences. He’ll start editing it all together next time.

SUNDAY BUILD STUFF: Joseph got his Geo Track all glued down and will start on scenery next time. Ryan also glued down his track – HO scale and he’ll be laying down the ballast next. Paul has mastered the art of hot knife cutting and discovered the importance of face masks – the fumes from the melting foam are quite intense. Ian began piecing together the inner walls of the Matrix Dojo (and AJ got in touch with her inner craftsperson).

Have a great Thanksgiving and we’ll see you all in December!

Janet, Dan, Nate and AJ

A more perfect world (or globe)

Posted By on November 16, 2009

Lots of trial and error learning goes on in our workshops. Sometimes the emphasis is on “error.”

One of our students from an early workshop, Reggie, wanted to make a globe. We said “sure.” Our strategy was to build it out of layers of pine — and that was REALLY hard.

The Globe

We all took turns rasping and sanding that #$%@ thing:

Janet in motion Reggie Rasps the Globe

Perfect Form or Zen Rasping The World is Getting Rounder

We made a “skin” for it using gords painstakingly laid out with huge rulers and large homemade compasses and Reggie drew his ideas of an old-fashioned map onto them.

Reggie's maps

In the end we had an OK first effort definitely falling into the “Done Is Good” category.

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If we were going to do it again I’d unhesitatingly buy a big wood lathe and simply turn the big ball on a lathe.

Or, I’d take other’s beautiful work as a good example:

Today I saw this great project at the MAKE blog

Image by davesbit from Flickr

Image by davesbit from Flickr

From MAKE: Flickr member davesbit built a globe by making a mold from a beach ball, and designed a map for it using The Generic Mapping Tools.

The globe is about 20 inches in diameter, made from fiberglass and filled with foam. The map parts are built with the Generic Mapping Tools and glued on…

Making-of photos on the Flickr photo page.

Project idea: Shelf diorama of Indiana Jones

Posted By on November 13, 2009

I tripped across this beautiful diorama project posted and built by Maxime PĂ©court who lives in Paris, France.

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What a fun idea.

Symposium: Making healthy babies, raising healthy children

Posted By on November 10, 2009

RyderEventWhere: UC Berkeley Art Museum Theatre, 2625 Durant Ave. Berkeley, California
When: Saturday, November 21, 2009, from 9 am to 4 pm

Sponsors: SageFemme, Ryder Foundation, Midwifery Today, Autism Recovery Consortium

Tickets: $60 until 11/20 then $75 and may be purchased through Everbrite: http://makinghealthybabies.eventbrite.com

The 2009 CIA World Factbook ranks the USA 45th among nations for infant mortality— the worst among all industrialized countries. The autism rate in our country is now 1 in 100.

How we can understand and take appropriate steps to ensure healthy mothers, births and children? Take a unique look at the entire system that affects our future generations- a mother’s current environment, the birth environment and your child’s toxic world.

This symposium brings together scientists, doctors, researchers and professionals for a compelling conversation about environmental influences around birth and childhood. Featuring plenary speakers, panels, audience questions, and film clips.

Revolutionary new software will also be introduced that will help parents assess the risks our children may encounter from the environment before birth, at birth and during childhood. Our three part program will make clearer to attendees what they should know about environmental health, their world, and how it affects them and their children.

Session One: Preparing for Childbirth
Sharyle Patton, Director, Commonweal Health and Environment Program, presents several new biomonitoring studies documenting the ubiquity and complexity of chemical and environmental exposures that people experience every day, and how those exposures could influence pregnancy and the health of our children. Exciting new software will be introduced which gives parents-to-be the opportunity to evaluate environmental exposures, and the effect they may have, so lifestyle changes can be made to ensure healthier outcomes for families and children. This session concludes with an expert panel, including Dr. Joanne Perron, OB/GYN, who will correlate the environmental science with her own personal experience; Julie Matthews, Certified Nutrition Consultant, who will describe the best diet for pre-pregnant women.

Session Two: The Birth Experience
Robbie Davis-Floyd, PhD, medical anthropologist and author of eight books including Birth as an American Rite of Passage, presents a brief history of birth in the USA. This presentation will focus on women’s ideas and cultural values about childbirth. The session concludes with a panel consisting of Elizabeth Davis, a Certified Professional Midwife, who will touch on an integrated view of birth, family and ecology and natural birth icons, Dr. Marshall Klaus, Pediatrician and Neonatologist and Phyllis Klaus C.S.W., M.F.C.C. who understand what care and support a woman needs at birth. A new film, produced by Diana Paul, of Sage Femme, will be premiered to introduce this session.

Session Three: Healthy Childhood
Dr. Andy Wakefield, academic gastroenterologist and Director of Thoughtful House Center for Children in Austin, Texas, presents new information and good news about the treatment and prevention of autism (now affecting 1 in 100 children). A ChARMtracker demo will be featured, launching this ground-breaking web-based treatment tracking software for autism. The session will conclude with a panel consisting of Pramila Srinivasan (ChARM founder), and Kenneth Bock (an integrative family practitioner whose practice is the beta site for the ChARMphysician product) and Julie Matthews, Certified Nutrition Consultant, who will describe the best diet for a healthy child. Clips from Elizabeth Horn’s film “Finding the Words” will introduce this session.

Audience questions and answers will be taken at the end of each session.

Master of Ceremonies
Carolyn Raffensperger
, M.A, J.D., Executive Director of Science and Environmental Health Network, is an environmental lawyer specializing in the fundamental changes in law and policy necessary for the protection and restoration of public health and the environment. Carolyn coined the term “ecological medicine” to encompass the broad notions that both health and healing are entwined with the natural world. She emphasizes ecological integrity and guardianship for future generations in her work.

ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZERS

Maureen Block is former in-house counsel at a New York investment bank, and founder of The Ryder Foundation whose mission is to raise money for organizations that make a difference in the lives of children with autism. Ms. Block is the mother of a child who has recovered from autism.

Elizabeth Horn co-founded the Autism Recovery Consortium to support continued research into autism recovery. Along with Dr. Martha Herbert of Harvard and Michael Lerner of Commonweal, she co-founded the autism group that meets regularly at Commonweal called NPART (New Paradigms for Autism Recovery and Treatment). She produced a documentary entitled “Finding the Words” about children recovering from autism that has now been broadcast in over 30 countries, and recently collaborated on the creation of ChARMtracker software (treatment management software for children with ASD).

Diana Paul is a filmmaker and Founding Director of Sage Femme, a non-profit organization that produces the Motherbaby International Film Festivals and promotes and educates about EcoBirth.

Molly Arthur, who has had 30 years of working with start-ups and growing networks in her professional sales career, is the Managing Director of Sage Femme. Molly is also the inspiration behind EcoBirth, a philosophy linking birth and the environment.

EcoBirth is the study of and practice in Deep Womb Ecology. It links and relates the environments of Birth and Earth. EcoBirth recognizes that the mental and physical care surrounding Birth is an indicator of how we care for the Earth. Since our primary provider and first home is the Earth, EcoBirth advocates cherishing her as a means of protecting our mother’s wombs, our baby’s births and our children’s futures.

Autistry Studios Newsletter – November 9, 2009

Posted By on November 9, 2009

Time warp! It’s been well over 2 weeks since the last newsletter. We’ve been super busy around here. We had a great time at the GGRC Service Provider Fair. Lots of people stopped by the Autistry table and asked for more information. Steven’s Factory on a Cloud diorama and Sarah’s Super Robot Monkey plushie were big hits.

The Autistry staff will be meeting over Thanksgiving weekend to plan for our 2010 workshop schedule – including our summer program. If you have any suggestions or requests please let us know.

Many of you have asked for a special Cosplay Costuming Workshop leading up to the Fanime Convention May 28-31 in San Jose. This year we would like to film the workshop and all of us at the convention so we may do a combo Film/Costume Workshop. We’ll keep you posted.

Chelsea, the Bay School senior filming a documentary about Autistry Studios has now visited each of the workshops and will begin filming soon. If you have any questions or want more information about this project please give us a call.

Friday College Support/Build Stuff Workshop: The concentration and productivity of this group over the last few weeks has been incredible. Corey is finishing up the Harvey Milk diorama, Phoebe is finishing up Ramses II, and Breton’s Elf World is becoming more and more detailed. Kris began a new project: Tank in Bocage Terrain – we’re all learning a lot about warfare amid the hedgerows.

Saturday Filmmaking Workshop: We have left Pre-Production and entered the Production Phase of the workshop. Andrew will begin editing The Rush Limbaugh Puppet Show next week using shot footage and found footage. Steven’s new Bupim epic is ready to shoot – well, almost ready! Devon is venturing into a new arena, documentary filmmaking. Her first project is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Bupim. Steven is cooperating – well, sort of.

Sunday Build Stuff Workshop: We welcomed a new student to our Sunday group, Paul. He jumped right in and began building a helmet from the video game Halo. Joseph and Ryan both laid out the track for their train layouts and began work on the terrain. Ian constructed the box and the interior walls for his Matrix Dojo diorama project. Lots of energy with these four boys!

Hands on Banking: Financial life skills for us and our children

Posted By on November 9, 2009

HandsOnBankingPam Erwin gave us a great pointer to Wells Fargo’s Hands on Banking program which provides instructional resources and online classes in financial skills.

Courses are available in English and Spanish and four grades: Kids, Teens, Young Adults, and Adults. We are going to be drawing on these lessons and the great instructor guides (available as pdfs) to add a financial skills component to the transition programs we offer.

We would welcome any feedback about this program or other programs you have heard of.